The iPhone 17 series launched in China on Sept. 19 with booming sales. Hundreds of people lined up outside Apple’s flagship stores in Beijing and Shanghai, waiting to buy the latest model, even amid China’s sluggish economy and overall weak consumer demand.
The design updates of the new iPhone models attracted the Chinese consumers, especially the models with 512 GB memory and above. iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are the most popular.
However, as with previous models, some functions of the iPhone 17 series sold in mainland China are disabled because of restrictions imposed by the Chinese communist regime.
These disabled functions, according to Apple, include: eSIM, which isn’t supported in mainland China; Group FaceTime, FaceTime Audio, and FaceTime links; and “creating a link to a FaceTime call isn’t supported on iPhone models purchased in China mainland, regardless of the country or region you’re in.”
Meanwhile, more than 30,000 apps are not available in Apple’s Chinese app store, including popular messenger apps.
Apple pulled WhatsApp, Threads, Telegram, and Signal from its app store in mainland China in 2024, due to pressure from the regime’s cyber regulator, citing national security concerns. In 2023, Apple pulled a number of ChatGPT-like apps for the same reason. In 2020, Apple purged nearly 30,000 apps from its Chinese App Store under pressure from mainland Chinese regulators, according to data research firm Qimai.
However, the differences between the Chinese special version of the iPhone 17 series and international versions didn’t dampen Chinese consumers’ enthusiasm to get their hands on the newest phones.
In Beijing, the Apple flagship store opened at 8 a.m. on Friday, 2 hours earlier than its usual 10 a.m. opening time to accommodate the crowds. Lines for in-store pickups began forming as early as 5 a.m.
At the Apple Store on Nanjing East Road in Shanghai, a long line of customers formed outside, as reported by state-controlled media.
A Beijing store staff member confirmed that all iPhone 17 series models were sold out. Even if consumers were to pre-order, they would not receive the phone until mid-to-late October or early November at the earliest, according to state-controlled media.
Scalpers were paying more than store prices to buy iPhone 17 models for resale at even higher prices. The 256 GB version of the iPhone 17 Pro was the most popular, with scalpers paying 500–600 yuan ($70–$84) more than the store price, while other versions are mostly 100–200 yuan ($14–$28) more. For the orange iPhone 17 Pro Max with 512 GB and 1 TB storage space, scalpers were paying 1,000 yuan ($140) and 1,500 yuan ($211) more, respectively, according to state-run media.
Better Tech and Quality
Chen Feng, a white collar worker in Beijing, told The Epoch Times that despite the disabled functions, Chinese consumers are still willing to buy the iPhone 17, partly because of its security and privacy.
He said that most people who are buying iPhone 17s are young Chinese who think that “the United States has the best technology.” No matter how powerful Huawei said its products were, “many of its products are still developed based on China’s own technology.”
Chen said many of the young Chinese who buy iPhone 17s are students at China’s top tech universities and other tech professionals in this field. “They all believe that Chinese smartphones are inferior, as they themselves develop these products and technology.”
Hu Decheng, a former general manager of a telecommunications company in Heilongjiang Province, China, told The Epoch Times that despite that Apple’s AI features and many international apps, such as YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram, are unavailable in China due to the Chinese regime’s censorship policies, “many Chinese bought the iPhone 17 because Apple is considered a symbol of quality in China.”
Still, Chinese people have limited privacy whether it’s a domestic product or an iPhone. The Chinese carriers controlled by the Chinese regime have installed spyware to monitor people’s communication and movements, Wang Guo-chen, an assistant researcher at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research in Taiwan, told The Epoch Times.
However, he noted that even with some functions disabled, “the price/performance ratio of the iPhone 17 series is still better than Huawei or other Chinese domestic phones in every aspect.”
A woman takes a selfie with iPhones inside the Apple store in Beijing’s Sanlitun area as the new iPhone 17 series smartphones go on sale in Beijing, China, on Sept. 19, 2025. Maxim Shemetov /Reuters
Price
Apple’s production chain is based in China, with many products manufactured in the country, “so tariffs have little impact and prices are more reasonable,” Hu said.
Wang noted that in terms of price, China’s domestic smartphones, especially Huawei’s, aren’t significantly cheaper than iPhones. After the entire mobile phone chip industry came under U.S. regulation, which restricted Huawei’s access to advanced Western chips, Wang said that Huawei’s domestically produced chips have had performance issues in their smartphones. “Therefore, their product quality doesn’t live up to their price,” he said.
The Chinese communist regime banned its officials from using iPhones for work in 2023 amid the ongoing tech war and trade war with the United States. Meanwhile, it has been promoting Chinese smartphones such as Xiaomi and Huawei through government subsidies and invoking “patriotism.”
A person checks a Huawei Mate 60 Pro smartphone displayed at a Huawei flagship store in Beijing on Sept. 25, 2023. Florence Lo/Reuters
In the past couple of years, the sales of Chinese-brand smartphones may have been supported by people who bought into the regime’s propaganda of patriotism, Wang said. “Now, they are facing some issues, such as the after-sales service isn’t as good as foreign smartphones, among others.”
Although the Chinese regime has vigorously promoted its domestic mobile phone brands and briefly grabbed a little market share through marketing and some fancy features, “the iPhone 17’s innovative design, thinner body, longer battery life, and enhanced AI functions, these upgrades directly attracted the mid- to high-end user groups in China,” Hu said.
Spending Power
Both Hu and Wang said that the hot sales of iPhone 17 are not an indicator of China’s overall domestic consumption capacity.
“China’s economic downturn, the collapse of the real estate market, fierce internal competition in industrial production, high pressure in the job market, and high unemployment rate have all made people lack confidence in consumption and prefer to save money rather than spend,” Hu said.
Wang said that “young people are usually more willing and dare to spend,” and “they may have saved for a whole year to buy a new iPhone 17.”
People try the new iPhone 17 series smartphones at the Apple store in Beijing’s Sanlitun area as a queue is seen outside during the start of sales in Beijing, China, on Sept. 19, 2025. Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
Chen said that “this year’s Chinese people’s spending power isn’t very strong, indeed, far below previous years. However, people still want to buy a new iPhone, because it’s one of the very few ways to enjoy life in China, especially under the current political and economic climate.”
He added that “the best iPhone 17 costs less than 20,000 yuan, but that’s still far cheaper than buying a house or a car.”
Luo Ya and Reuters contributed to this report.
